Poor Arthur. His supervisor monitors his every keystroke, constantly evaluates his performance, and doesn't hestitate to put a dialog box on his computer screen saying, What's this shit, Art? Where are the savings on direct costs?
This is bad. Worse, when Arthur goes to the ATM to deposit his check, his boss finds him, and the ATM display reads, I want you to do something about the direct costs on your project. Got that?
And the worst? Art's boss is a computer program. There are shades of Orwell, Kafka, and Woody Allen's Sleeper in The Virtual Boss, a near- future scenario about a few hapless human beings caught in the web of an insidious computer program designed to replace the entire middle management level of Information Accuracy, Inc. The novel's eponymous villain is a self-adapting neural-network program that uses feedback from its human subordinates to "learn" their hot buttons, and then punch those buttons mercilessly.
Author Floyd Kemske is less interested in high-tech than in examining the black heart of capitalism. While The Virtual Boss takes a few scientific liberties, its scathing assessment of the corporate mentality is dead-on. - Steven Levy
The Virtual Boss, by Floyd Kemske, US$19.95, Catbird Press: +1 (203) 230 2391.
STREET CRED
VoyeurOpen the Men's Room Door, HAL
Will the Real Bill Gates Please Stand Up?
